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Romania has no plans to open labour market to non-EU countries

Authorities’ main objective is to attract Romanian workers currently abroad, given that workers’ immigration abroad led to a shortage of domestic labour force, President Traian Basescu said in an interview to Spanish daily ‘El Mundo,’ posted on the website of the presidential administration on Friday.

According to Basescu, current salary conditions in Romania stimulate “immigrants’ return home.” He said that, for instance, construction companies had to increase wages well over the national average because many workers left to work in Italy, Spain, France or Germany. “The only solution to keep the labour force in the country is to increase salaries,” he said, adding that all salaries will be increased. “The fear that generated this precaution measure is false. Living standards in our country are continuously improving, including salaries,” he said, underlining that Romanian workers abroad are appreciated and significantly contribute to the economic growth of the counties they work in. He also said that Romania does not have the intention to open its labour force to workers from non-EU countries at the moment. “In a first stage, we will facilitate access to labour market for neighbouring countries, where there are significant communities of Romanians: Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia,” he said.